groff_tmac - macro files in the roff typesetting system
The roff(7) type-setting system provides a set of macro packages suitable
for special kinds of documents. Each macro package stores its macros and
definitions in a file called the package's tmac file. The name is
deduced from `TroffMACros'.
The tmac files are normal roff source documents, except that they
usually contain only definitions and setup commands, but no text. All tmac
files are kept in a single or a small number of directories, the tmac
directories.
groff provides all classical macro packages, some more full packages, and
some secondary packages for special purposes. Note that it is not possible to
use multiple primary macro packages at the same time; saying e.g.
-
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
or
-
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
will fail.
- man
- This is the classical macro package for UNIX manual pages
(man pages); it is quite handy and easy to use; see
groff_man(7).
- doc
-
- mdoc
- An alternative macro package for man pages mainly used in BSD
systems; it provides many new features, but it is not the standard for
man pages; see groff_mdoc(7).
The packages in this section provide a complete set of macros for writing
documents of any kind, up to whole books. They are similar in functionality;
it is a matter of taste which one to use.
- me
- The classical me macro package; see groff_me(7).
- mm
- The semi-classical mm macro package; see groff_mm(7).
- mom
- The new mom macro package, only available in groff. As this is not
based on other packages, it can be freely designed. So it is expected to
become quite a nice, modern macro package. See groff_mom(7).
- ms
- The classical ms macro package; see groff_ms(7).
The macro packages in this section are not intended for stand-alone usage, but
can be used to add special functionality to any other macro package or to
plain groff.
- papersize
- This macro file is already loaded at start-up by troff so it isn't
necessary to call it explicitly. It provides an interface to set the paper
size on the command line with the option -dpaper=size.
Possible values for size are the same as the predefined
papersize values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see
groff_font(5) for more) except a7-d7. An appended
l (ell) character denotes landscape orientation. Examples:
a4, c3l, letterl.
- Most output drivers need additional command line switches -p and
-l to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
the driver specific DESC file. For example, use the following for PS
output on A4 paper in landscape orientation:
-
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
- pic
- This file provides proper definitions for the macros PS and
PE, needed for the pic(1) preprocessor. They will center
each picture. Use it only if your macro package doesn't provide proper
definitions for those two macros (actually, most of them already
have).
- pspic
- A single macro is provided in this file, PSPIC, to include a
PostScript graphic in a document. It makes only sense for output devices
which support inclusion of PS images: -Tps, -Tdvi, and
-Thtml; the file is then loaded automatically. Syntax:
- .PSPIC [-L|-R|-I n] file
[width [height]]
- file is the name of the file containing the illustration;
width and height give the desired width and height of the
graphic. The width and height arguments may have scaling
indicators attached; the default scaling indicator is i.
This macro will scale the graphic uniformly in the x and
y directions so that it is no more than width wide and
height high. By default, the graphic will be horizontally centered.
The -L and -R options cause the graphic to be left-aligned
and right-aligned, respectively. The -I option causes the graphic
to be indented by n (default scaling indicator
is m).
- trace
- Use this for tracing macro calls. It is only useful for debugging. See
groff_trace(7).
- tty-char
- Overrides the definition of standard troff characters and some groff
characters for tty devices. The optical appearance is intentionally
inferior compared to that of normal tty formatting to allow processing
with critical equipment.
- www
- Additions of elements known from the html format, as being used in the
internet (World Wide Web) pages; this includes URL links and mail
addresses; see groff_www(7).
In classical roff systems, there was a funny naming scheme for macro packages,
due to a simplistic design in option parsing. Macro packages were always
included by option -m; when this option was directly followed by its
argument without an intervening space, this looked like a long option preceded
by a single minus — a sensation in the computer stone age. To make this
optically working for macro package names, all classical macro packages choose
a name that started with the letter `m', which was
omitted in the naming of the macro file.
For example, the macro package for the man pages was called
man, while its macro file tmac.an. So it could be activated by
the argument an to option -m, or -man for short.
For similar reasons, macro packages that did not start with an
`m' had a leading `m' added
in the documentation and in talking; for example, the package corresponding
to tmac.doc was called mdoc in the documentation, although a
more suitable name would be doc. For, when omitting the space between
the option and its argument, the command line option for activating this
package reads -mdoc.
To cope with all situations, actual versions of groff(1)
are smart about both naming schemes by providing two macro files for the
inflicted macro packages; one with a leading `m',
the other one without it. So in groff, the man macro package
may be specified as on of the following four methods:
-
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
Recent packages that do not start with `m'
do not use an additional `m' in the documentation.
For example, the www macro package may be specified only as one of
the two methods:
-
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
Obviously, variants like -mmwww would not make much
sense.
A second strange feature of classical troff was to name macro
files according to tmac.name. In modern operating systems, the
type of a file is specified as postfix, the file name extension. Again,
groff copes with this situation by searching both
anything.tmac and tmac.anything if only
anything is specified.
The easiest way to find out which macro packages are available on
a system is to check the man page groff(1), or the contents of
the tmac directories.
In groff, most macro packages are described in man
pages called groff_name(7), with a leading
`m' for the classical packages.
There are several ways to use a macro package in a document. The classical way
is to specify the troff/groff option -m name at run-time; this
makes the contents of the macro package name available. In groff, the
file name.tmac is searched within the tmac path; if not found,
tmac.name will be searched for instead.
Alternatively, it is also possible to include a macro file by
adding the request .so filename into the document; the
argument must be the full file name of an existing file, possibly with the
directory where it is kept. In groff, this was improved by the similar
request .mso package, which added searching in the tmac path,
just like option -m does.
Note that in order to resolve the .so and .mso
requests, the roff preprocessor soelim(1) must be called if the files
to be included need preprocessing. This can be done either directly by a
pipeline on the command line or by using the troff/groff option -s.
man calls soelim automatically.
For example, suppose a macro file is stored as
/usr/share/tmac/macros.tmac and is used in some document called
docu.roff.
At run-time, the formatter call for this is
-
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
To include the macro file directly in the document either
is used or
.so /usr/share/tmac/macros.tmac
In both cases, the formatter is called with
-
].groffer:Shell_cmd.prompt_text " "
If you want to write your own groff macro file, call it
whatever.tmac and put it in some directory of the tmac path,
see section FILES. Then documents can include it with the .mso
request or the option -m.
A roff(7) document is a text file that is enriched by predefined
formatting constructs, such as requests, escape sequences, strings, numeric
registers, and macros from a macro package. These elements are described in
roff(7).
To give a document a personal style, it is most useful to extend
the existing elements by defining some macros for repeating tasks; the best
place for this is near the beginning of the document or in a separate
file.
Macros without arguments are just like strings. But the full power
of macros reveals when arguments are passed with a macro call. Within the
macro definition, the arguments are available as the escape sequences
$1, ..., $9, $[...], $*, and $@,
the name under which the macro was called is in $0, and the number of
arguments is in register 2; see groff(7).
The phase when groff reads a macro is called copy-in mode in roff-talk.
This is comparable to the C preprocessing phase during the development
of a program written in the C language.
In this phase, groff interprets all backslashes; that means that
all escape sequences in the macro body are interpreted and replaced by their
value. For constant expression, this is wanted, but strings and registers
that might change between calls of the macro must be protected from being
evaluated. This is most easily done by doubling the backslash that
introduces the escape sequence. This doubling is most important for the
positional parameters. For example, to print information on the arguments
that were passed to the macro to the terminal, define a macro named
`.print_args', say.
.ds midpart was called with
.de print_args
. tm \f[I]\\$0\f[] \\*[midpart] \\n[.$] arguments:
. tm \\$*
..
When calling this macro by
the following text is printed to the terminal:
print_args was called with the following 2 arguments:
arg1 arg2
Let's analyze each backslash in the macro definition. As the
positional parameters and the number of arguments will change with each call
of the macro their leading backslash must be doubled, which results in
\\$* and \\[.$]. The same applies to the macro name because it
could be called with an alias name, so \\$0.
On the other hand, midpart is a constant string, it will
not change, so no doubling for \*[midpart]. The \f escape
sequences are predefined groff elements for setting the font within the
text. Of course, this behavior will not change, so no doubling with
\f[I] and \f[].
Writing groff macros is easy when the escaping mechanism is temporarily
disabled. In groff, this is done by enclosing the macro definition(s) into a
pair of .eo and .ec requests. Then the body in the macro
definition is just like a normal part of the document — text enhanced
by calls of requests, macros, strings, registers, etc. For example, the code
above can be written in a simpler way by
.eo
.ds midpart was called with
.de print_args
. tm \f[I]\$0\f[] \*[midpart] \n[.$] arguments:
. tm \$*
..
.ec
Unfortunately, draft mode cannot be used universally. Although it
is good enough for defining normal macros, draft mode will fail with
advanced applications, such as indirectly defined strings, registers, etc.
An optimal way is to define and test all macros in draft mode and then do
the backslash doubling as a final step; do not forget to remove the
.eo request.
- •
- Start every line with a dot, for example, by using the groff request
.nop for text lines, or write your own macro that handles also text
lines with a leading dot.
.de Text
. if (\\n[.$] == 0) \
. return
. nop \)\\$*[rs]
..
- •
- Write a comment macro that works both for copy-in and draft mode; for as
escaping is off in draft mode, trouble might occur when normal comments
are used. For example, the following macro just ignores its arguments, so
it acts like a comment line:
.de c
..
.c This is like a comment line.
- •
- In long macro definitions, make ample use of comment lines or empty lines
for a better structuring.
- •
- To increase readability, use groff's indentation facility for requests and
macro calls (arbitrary whitespace after the leading dot).
Diversions can be used to realize quite advanced programming constructs. They
are comparable to pointers to large data structures in the
C programming language, but their usage is quite different.
In their simplest form, diversions are multi-line strings, but
they get their power when diversions are used dynamically within macros. The
information stored in a diversion can be retrieved by calling the diversion
just like a macro.
Most of the problems arising with diversions can be avoided if you
are conscious about the fact that diversions always deal with complete
lines. If diversions are used when the line buffer has not been flashed,
strange results are produced; not knowing this, many people get desperate
about diversions. To ensure that a diversion works, line breaks should be
added at the right places. To be on the secure side, enclose everything that
has to do with diversions into a pair of line breaks; for example, by amply
using .br requests. This rule should be applied to diversion
definition, both inside and outside, and to all calls of diversions. This is
a bit of overkill, but it works nicely.
[If you really need diversions which should ignore the current
partial line, use environments to save the current partial line and/or use
the .box request.]
The most powerful feature using diversions is to start a diversion
within a macro definition and end it within another macro. Then everything
between each call of this macro pair is stored within the diversion and can
be manipulated from within the macros.
All macro names must be named name.tmac to fully use the tmac
mechanism. tmac.name as with classical packages is possible as
well, but deprecated.
The macro files are kept in the tmac directories; a colon
separated list of these constitutes the tmac path.
The search sequence for macro files is (in that order):
- •
- the directories specified with troff/groff's -M command line
option
- •
- the directories given in the $GROFF_TMAC_PATH
environment variable
- •
- the current directory (only if in unsafe mode, which is enabled by the
-U command line switch)
- •
- the home directory
- •
- a platform-specific directory, being /usr/share/tmac in this
installation
- •
- a site-specific (platform-independent) directory, being
/usr/share/tmac in this installation
- •
- the main tmac directory, being /usr/share/tmac in this
installation
- $GROFF_TMAC_PATH
- A colon separated list of additional tmac directories in which to search
for macro files. See the previous section for a detailed description.
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free
Documentation License) version 1.1 or later. You should have received a copy
of the FDL on your system, it is also available on-line at the
This document is part of groff, the GNU roff distribution.
It was written by it is maintained by
A complete reference for all parts of the groff system is found in the groff
info(1) file.
- groff(1)
- an overview of the groff system.
- groff_man(7),
-
- groff_mdoc(7),
-
- groff_me(7),
-
- groff_mm(7),
-
- groff_mom(7),
-
- groff_ms(7),
-
- groff_trace(7),
-
- groff_www(7).
- the groff tmac macro packages.
- groff(7)
- the groff language.
The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard is available at the